ScrapYard Armory

This game was inspired by events portrayed in the PDF exclusive Jihad Hot Spots: Atreus.  While not directly tied to any particular track, the scenario was built from various pieces of information.

The broken warriors of the Free Worlds League are under assault from the elite of the Word of Blake.  Sneak attacks, sabotage and genocide are now common place in the fragile nation.

Word of Blake forces are planning to attack the capital but a brave commander has marshaled a force of Free World’s League Militia to stand in their way and aim to prevent their advance.  The Word of Blake will not be denied and send a force to press the League’s defense.  Can the Militia hold out?  Can they stop the onslaught or will they be yet another ineffective speed bump on the road to desolation?

Free Worlds League

Command Lance

• AWS-8Q Awesome (Piloting 3, Gunnery 2) Commander
• P1 Perseus Prime (Piloting 4, Gunnery 3)
• MR-5M Cerberus (Piloting 4, Gunnery 3)
• ON1-M Orion (Piloting 4, Gunnery 3)

Chase Lance

• DV-6M Dervish (Piloting 5, Gunnery 4)
• HER-2M Hermes (Piloting 4, Gunnery 3)
• HMR-3C Hammer (Piloting 3, Gunnery 2)
• WTH-1 Whitworth (Piloting 5, Gunnery 4)

Support Lance

• Striker Light Tank (Driving 4, Gunnery 3)
• Achileus Battle Armor, Machine Gun (Gunnery 3)
• Achileus Battle Armor, Laser (Gunnery 3)
• Achileus Battle Armor, Flamer (Gunnery 3)

Word of Blake

Primus Level II

• LGC-01 Legacy (Piloting 3, Gunnery 2)
• C-SRP-O Seraph Invictus (Piloting 5, Gunnery 4)
• TSN-1C Tessen (Piloting 5, Gunnery 4)
• ST-8A Shootist (Piloting 4, Gunnery 3)
• BL-12-KNT Black Knight (Piloting 3, Gunnery 2)
• LGH-4Y Lightray (Piloting 5, Gunnery 4)

Dominus Level II

• GUR-2G Gurkha (Piloting 3, Gunnery 2)
• RDS-2A Red Shift (Piloting 4, gunnery 3)
• Purifier Battle Armor (Gunnery 3)
• Purifier Battle Armor (Gunnery 3)
• Nephilim Assault Battle Armor (Gunnery 3)
• Phalanx Heavy Battle Armor (Gunnery 3)

SPECIAL RULES

The following special rules were in effect during this game.

Heavy Rain and Lightning

All to-hit numbers and piloting rolls were modified by +1.  Each turn there was the possibility of lightning strikes.  The location of lightning strikes were randomly determined with the aid of a cell phone random number generator.  Lightning Strikes can be seen on the battlefield marked by yellow chips.

Fire for Effect

The Free Worlds League have access to three artillery units: a Long Tom, a Sniper, and a Thumper all within 1 turn artillery flight time.

Watch Your Step

The Free Worlds League may plant 6 conventional mine fields and 3 EMP mine fields.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Cutting Off the Head

The Word of Blake must destroy the Free Worlds League Commander’s Awesome.

Moving On

After the League commander’s ‘Mech is destroyed, the Word of Blake forces must exit at least 50% of their ‘Mech forces off the map edge opposite their starting edge.

The Word of Blake achieves a Minor Victory if they destroy the League commander and a Decisive Victory if they can achieve both objectives.  Any other result is a Free Worlds League Victory.

ENGAGEMENT

Turn 1 – Free Worlds League Wins Initiative

Both sides advance towards the other with malicious intent.  The Word of Blake spreads wide with the heavier slower units heading down the middle while the Leaguers concentrate in the middle of the battlefield protected by ample woods.  The Word of Blake Gurkha is the first to find a minefield but shrugs off the damage.

Weapons fire is sporadic with a few long range shots hitting the mark but nothing to warrant concern at this point.

Six lightning strikes reach earth but none threaten either force.

Turn 2 – Word of Blake Wins Initiative

The Militia press the center of the field with their heavier units while stabbing forward with faster units.  To the North a Whitworth, Striker Tank and Hermes attempt to blunt the overreaching Tessen.  To the south, a lone Dervish foolhardily jumps far from support.  Blakist forces seize the advantage and swarm the Dervish with the speedy Lightray, Gurkha, and Red Shift.

The remaining Blakist forces slowly make their way towards the fight.  Along the way the Legacy walks through two minefields, one of which goes off for minimal damage.

The first round of artillery falls in a tight grouping around the slowly moving Seraph doing moderate damage from two of the three rounds.

The Nephilim BattleArmor, who began the battle ahead of the main Blakist line, opens up with all missile tubes to the Whitworth’s rear.  The torso armor crumbles under the impact.  Critical hits strike an engine but spare the ammunition stored close by.  The Militia Dervish is spared major injury by poor shooting by the three Blakist ‘Mechs surrounding him.

Minor damage is spread around to almost all combatants.  The Free Worlds League has particularly bad rolls.  The only bright spot is a lone PPC shot to the BlackKnight which kills a Purifier squad occupying a torso location.

Ten lightning strikes litter the battle field but leave both forces unmarred.

Turn 3 – Word of Blake Wins Initiative

The Militia units continue to press the center and move to flank the larger Legacy allowing the Tessen to move uncontested towards the Free Worlds League Commander.

The faster Blakist units to the south swarm over the hill to surround the Awesome from the rear as the heavier Blakist units continue to approach from the front all but completely ignoring the supposedly diminutive militia units the League’s commander is hiding behind.

Artillery lands in a grouping between the Seraph and the Black Knight but only dealing minimal damage to the Black Knight after the rounds scatter.

The Blakists suffer poor rolls but do manage to slag several tons of armor off the Awesome.  The Legacy has it’s rear armor stripped but no internal damage results.  Concentrated fire on the Blakist Shootist strips the armor off the right torso and badly damages other locations.

The Gurkha misses a sword attack on the Awesome which retaliates by kicking off the Gurkha’s left leg.

Seven lightning strikes stab the earth, this time getting very close to some of the Free World League ‘Mechs.

Turn 4 – Free Worlds League Wins Initiative

The Blakist Legacy attempts to move forward to put it’s back (now a gaping hole) against a wall and fire at the League Commander but activates an EMP mine field with it’s first step.  The mammoth electromagnetic pulse instantly shuts down the ‘Mech for five turns.

The Militia heavies hold the center of the battle field while the faster ‘Mechs wrap around to the Seraph’s rear.  Word of Blake forces are now surrounding the Militia but cannot seize the advantage due to the loss of initiative.

Several artillery rounds surround the Blakist Black Knight, but are not close enough.  Another round scatters far enough to nick one of the Free Worlds League ‘Mechs and the adjacent  0ne-legged Gurkha on the ground.

Poor results continue for the Word of Blake who just can’t seem to score meaningful hits against their opponents despite the partial C3i network.

The Hermes behind the shutdown Legacy easily hits with everything to cause the ‘Mech to fall.  Combined fire from the majority of heavy militia units gut the Shootist, critically hitting most of it’s weapon systems but sparing it from the junk heap for now.

All Word of Blake units concentrate fire on the Militia Commander in his Awesome and manage to slag off all remaining armor in the right torso but still cannot score critical damage.

The Seraph is pummeled from the rear but avoids catastrophic damage.

In the physical phase, the Orion kicks off the Shootist’s left leg, adding the the misery befalling the Word of Blake force.

Three lightning strikes occur and one is close enough to do damage.  The Orion and Shootist both receive scars from the adjacent lightning strike.

Turn 5 – Free Worlds League Wins Initiative

The Free World League forces form a tight circle to corral the undaunted Seraph which obliges and walks into yet another minefield.  The Commander in his Awesome waits for the right moment and runs towards heavier cover and the protection of his lance mates where the ring of ring Blakists has collapsed.  The rear armor is prominently displayed to all enemies which has more armor than the front at this point.

The remaining Word of Blake do their best to anticipate but cannot reach optimum distance for their weapons and failing C3i network.  The League Cerberus marches into the fray and gets behind the cautious Tessen.

The guns of the artillery are now silent as the action heats up and the danger of friendly fire increases to unacceptable levels.

Almost the entire Marik force pours fire power into the Seraph which quickly accumulates engine hits until the great machine falls silent.  The Cerberus meanwhile rips through the rear armor of the Tessen and turns it’s gyro into scrap.

Return fire from the Word of Blake concentrated once again on the Awesome strips yet additional armor but cannot generate critical hits to even slow it down.

The Legacy is swarmed by a squad of Achilieus which scramble to the head of the immobile ‘Mech and aim to rend it from the torso.

End Game

The game is called as the Word of Blake finds themselves battered and their objective escaping their grasp.  Meanwhile, the greater battle for Atreus is not going so well for the Free Worlds League.  For every battle won by the League like this here, there are dozens more where the best of the League are hunted down and slaughtered.

This was a good game with incredible mine rolling by the Free Worlds League player.  Damn near every minefield the Word moved through detonated.  The EMP mine on the Legacy was more salt in the wound as more and more ‘Mechs were legged by the aggressive Militia forces.